Intent vs. Motive

There is always a tension, as it relates to law, between an act committed and the reasons it was committed, and whether to judge the active agent of the crime by which of these. In the second chapter of Orson Scott Card’s novel Speaker for the Dead, there is an interesting tidbit about motivation versus …

No, This Has Nothing to do With Arnold

According to the U.S. Constitution, only natural born citizens of the United States are eligible for the Office of President. I think this was appropriate at the time it was written, but things have changed a lot, and the United States has always been a nation with a large immigrant population. In fact, immigrants who …

Universal Rights and American Exceptionalism

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Over here, this is what we believe. Yesterday, President Obama …

The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Robin Williams used to have a joke he used routinely. It was something about wearing pants so tight, "I can tell what religion you are." Okay, it's a joke about circumcision. Pretty funny? Sure. But I've got a better one. "Man goes ape-shit and kills and injures a whole bunch of innocent people in shooting …